most of them dunno english (pakistani/indian etc) and that bugs the hell outta me b/c IMO if you live in england, learn english. I dont know urdu very well so when customers start asking me stuff in urdu i have to tell them i dont understand them.. they then give me a look of 'Oh you should know ur language etcc' i then ask them what they need help with and they just fixate on me not knowing urdu instead of telling me what they want help with.

i get this A LOT.

Plus some customers are so damn cheap.. they drop a tin, dent it then ask me 'can i get this reduced?'
i tell them no because i just saw them drop it and its had no effect on the food inside.

(Original post by Samz)
i work in a supermarket and i agree about the people who just expect you to pack their shopping. if the customer is old/disabled/has their hands full of baby or whatever i'll pack it without being asked but when they're just stood there watching their shopping mount up and then say 'aren't you going to pack this??' with some disgusted look on their face, then i mind.
we also can't offer bags, customers have to ask for them. people are so so rude about this, 'BAG?!' i've only got four weeks til i leave so i've started replying with 'can i have a bag, PLEASE.'

hate customers who speak on the phone while you serve them, and customers who don't speak to you at all, clearly because you're sooo beneath them for having to work at a supermarket to fund your education. shove off douchebags.

had a customer on saturday who threatened to 'stab me up' cos i refused the sale of alcohol. get.a.life. we called security, he threatened to stab them too. he was all 'they don't have anything better to do cos they work for **** wages at the coop' i felt like saying, 'yeh, paying taxes so chavs like you can sit around all day claiming benefits which we pay for.'

argh, also is it me or are old people actually the rudest?! i really find this, its surprising cos young people get so much bad press.. sure some of them are rude but a lot more old people are rude. one old man came in drunk and asked for cigerettes, he was slurring his words so i asked him if he could repeat what he said so he went 'TEN.STERLING.SUPERKINGS.PLEASE. ' and then tutted at me. so i refused to serve him. my supervisor is all for us refusing to serve rude customers, so it's pretty ace. (:

OMG i totally agree with you on every point! i work in a supermarket too and the whole damn bag thins is annoying.. EVERY time i serve someone they need a bag. i tell them that they need to start bringing the bags themselves.. they get all arsey and im like 'errr hello its common now where have you been?!'
this one lady was like 'well there needs to be signs up telling us to bring our own bags'
i told her there were signs, then i pointed where to and she replied
'yeah well they arent visable enough
bitch just couldnt admit she was wrong, errgh

customers who dont **** off when we tell them its closing time OMG.. soo annoying..we turn the shopfloor light off to signal that we are totally closed and people STILL shop in the dark.

I haaate customers who drop something and run away.. some customers atleast tell us they've dropped something while others are happy to drop a 6 pint of milk and run away. ergh.

today was my first day back to work after a 2 week break.. God i haaated it.. cannot wait to leave.

(Original post by Yusuf.T)
most of them dunno english (pakistani/indian etc) and that bugs the hell outta me b/c IMO if you live in england, learn english. I dont know urdu very well so when customers start asking me stuff in urdu i have to tell them i dont understand them.. they then give me a look of 'Oh you should know ur language etcc' i then ask them what they need help with and they just fixate on me not knowing urdu instead of telling me what they want help with.

i remember once some pakistani came in and was asking me constantly
"reduce? reduce? no date, 10 pence?" and i'm like "eh naw hen", then she started talking to my colleague in what i presume was urdu (i don't really know) and he was just standing there with a look of utter disbelief seeing as he doesn't look south asian in any way at all.
man that woman's in all the time i hate her she thinks that since something is going out of date it's her god given right to get it for 10 pence

I haaate customers who drop something and run away.. some customers atleast tell us they've dropped something while others are happy to drop a 6 pint of milk and run away. ergh.

ha on sunday night there a woman dropped a full bottle of baileys. apologised, went and got a new bottle and dropped that too.
needless to say she was chucked out.

I work at Snow and Rock (ski/outdoor shop). Some of the things I've experienced there are just plain hilarious in hindsight.

- Typical moaning about waiting (one guy actually phoned the store to complain that he was waiting in the queue for the till - and it was the guy at the till who answered the phone. Logic?)/no stock/item not available in the size/colour they want. I'll just bend over and start pushing it out for you, sir...

- As a ski boot fitter, seeing people's manky feet all day isn't that very rewarding. When I have to serve someone who hasn't cut their toenails, it's pretty bad. But the worst one I had was some guy who had a fungal nail infection on ALL of his toenails. Due to health and safety, I had to refuse him service, and he then spent about half an hour calling me everything under the sun and claiming that he didn't have an F.N.I, before then launching off at the manager (who then asked him to leave due to his foul language).

- People who want extra discount on sale items, and make it seem as if they're doing you a massive favour in buying that product. For example, once winter season's done, you can pick up a pair of ski boots for around £150. People try them on, then say 'what deal can you do for me?', Erm, none? They're already reduced by 40% which is more than I get in staff discount. Then they do the whole 'well I won't buy them then'. I always just say 'ok'. They always end up buying them anyway.

- EVERY single person who asks to try on a pair of Oakley's always commets on the number of locks on the cabinets (there's 4 in total - 2 on the cabinet, and 2 padlocks). 'God, it's like fort Knox!' Oh. Original. Really original. Like I haven't heard that ABOUT FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO!!!! What do you expect, there's about 2 grand's worth of stock sat in this one cabinet alone!

- People bringing in items they didn't buy from us to send to our repairs department at head office, and getting arsey because we DARE to charge them £10 to send the item back to a manufacturer we have no links with at all.

- People bringing in items they did buy from us to send to the repairs department and kicking up a massive fuss because 'this item's just not good enough'. Sorry love, I'll be more carefull when I'm stitching the seams next time, shall I? Because It just HAD to have been me who made that jacket. That you lovingly put a ski slash into the shoulder of. Which therefore invalidates the warranty.

- There was once a guy who casually walked into the store, stood net to the till point, whilst both tills were being used, and just kept bellowing 'SERVICE!!! SERVICE!!!!' at the top of his lungs. I finished serving my customer, looked at him and bellowed 'WHAAAAAT!!!!????' back to him. I got a verbal warning for it, but my manager had to run out to the stock room as she was laughing so hard.

- New year's day. Everyone who's working is hanging. We're all recouperating in the boot pit upstairs, when we hear someone banging on the door. I go down and answer it to this guy who says he wants a ski boot fit done. 'Sorry sir, we're not open for another half an hour'. 'But I need to get some ski boots, I've got to get to the airport in an hour!' You what!? You waited until NEW YEARS FRIGGIN' DAY, AN HOUR BEFORE YOUR FRIGGIN PLANE RIDE to get some boots!? SOD OFF, MATE!

-The absolute worst thing of all, the creme-de-la-creme, the mother of all things that gets my back well and truly arched - kids. I hate kids so much. Running aroud, smashing things over, oblivious to anything, everything and everyone - and all the while their parents are just casually looking at shirts, and dropping them onto the floor because they decide they don't like them. Occasionally, you here a faint 'Timmy, come here please', as the parent half-arsedly tries to reign in the kid with a verbal command that has as much persuasive power as a wet fart, but to no avail.

I'm actually toying with the idea of puting sentry guns on the doors and setting the target as anyone under 10.

I used to work in a newsagency and I swear that it attracted some of the rudest, most mentally unstable people in town.

It's not my fault you newspaper wasn't delivered at 6:30am.
It's not my fault the cigarette company puts gross pictures on the packets.
No I'm not mopping up where your dickhead of 5 year old just peed on the floor, you can do that yourself.
No sorry I don't think you can take the magazine out of the plastic just because you want to read it and then not but it.

And when someone buys lotto and they ask for the winning numbers I felt like leaning over the counter and yelling at them YOU ARE THE 100th PERSON TO ASK ME THAT FOR ***** SAKE IF I KNEW THE WINNING NUMBERS I WOULDN't BE WORKING IN THIS **** HOLE!

Yes, I had worked in a reputed three star restaurant as a manager and faced such annoyed customers many times. I used to tackle these issues considering as part of job and never got excited. Feeling sorry for the mistake and eliminating the cause immediately is the best way to handle such situations. Reputation is more important.

I work at the port in Barcelona checking people onto a cruise ship so really I can't complain. Everyone is really happy, they are about to get on a cruise ship for a week. Whats annoying but not really the customer's fault is when their passport can't be scanned and I have to type in the information manually, their passports are written in pen >.> makes me laugh inside.

Theres an option to basically do the entire process online BUT you must print out a little piece of paper to take to the desk. People do the check in and then don't bring the paper, they then get a bit mardy but when I say "Did you print out this paper?" with an example set sail pass with "Print out after completing" there in big letters they admit defeat.

I work in a cafe during the day and a four star resturant at night and I hate people who are impatient.

Yes, we've put your order in and we'll get it out to you as soon as it's ready because NO, we can't make a potato with mince in less than three minutes or a steak in less than five, so just wait - it'll be out when it's ready!!!!

Yes, I work in Matalan and get customers ALL THE TIME who have a trolley full of clothes and are like "Is it okay if I buy all this and take it back if it's no good, I just can't be bothered to queue for the fitting rooms?" ARGH!

(Original post by hobo06)
We had a thread like this a while back, ah how I enjoyed ranting in there! Can't think of any specific ********* recently, just general people that complain about lack of staff, long queue etc. as if it's my fault, because I obviously employ the staff, do the rotas, all the management jobs whilst standing behind a till.
I work at Matalan as head cashier at weekends, dealing with refunds/exchanges, complaints and all that, so I've definitely had more than my fair share. Though also take as much overtime as I can get doing other things so it's not just at the tills I get them. I could stand tidying an area for half hour, and a customer will walk past, knock something off an arm, look at it and walk off again. Or just dump something they decide they don't want anywhere they like, I'm standing there, you could at least give it to me, or don't dump it in view.
Ah I'm going to go on and on now. Here come's a list on annoyances:

People who queue for ages, complain about the queue, but then don't help at all by having their Matalan card ready (you've just complained about how there is always a queue and not enough staff, therefore you come here regularly enough to know you are going to get asked for it!) or don't even have their payment ready, digging through their bag for their purse.
People who take the piss with exchanges (they have to queue seperately). Return one item at £2, exchange for a trolley full of stuff. Pisses other people off waiting for returns, and those queueing just to pay when they only have one or two items.
People who can't read. It says 'Please pay here' above the tills, 'Please queue here' at the end of the queue, and then a big sign behind me, and another above me saying 'Refunds and exchanges'. People then get arsey with the staff when they are sent to re-queue at the refunds desk because they queued in the wrong place, due to their own inability to read.
People who think 'Refunds and exchanges' means 'hey come to me if you can't be bothered to queue to pay'. I don't care how many items you have, you are not an exception to the rules.

OK I'll stop there for now, but no doubt I will think of much more and I'll be back!

FELLOW MATALAN EMPLOYEE! At last someone understands!

Our Refunds and Exchanges used to be upstairs in Ladies and more than a year ago it was moved downstairs. There are HUGE signs above it, but I still get customers coming up to queue in Ladies and shouting at me when I explain that they have to go downstairs and requeue. Then the managers wonder why we have long queues and yet they refuse to put a sign at the bottom of the stairs and the start of ladies queue space that Refunds is downstairs!

...whine that the expense is too high
...whine that they weren't cheating
...whine that apparently I can't do my job (after I've been there a year)
...whine that the breaks aren't long enough
...whine that the masks make them sweaty and unable to see (for people unfamiliar; the masks may save your life)

I work in a building society as a cashier... And yes I have some very annoying customers...

No its not my ******* fault your interest rate is so low... No I cant make it go up.... No I dont know when its going back up... I dont know if its higher elsewhere... Dont like, change to a different bank! Just stop complaining to me! Arghhhhhh

Also when people complain about having to wait outside for us to open... we open at 9... thats everyday at 9.... so why get there at 8:45 and then moan?!?!?

Oh and when something technical goes wrong or for security reasons I cnt tell them something and they blame me for it?!? Its not my fault my system has crashed or that you are askin me things I cant legal tell you!

(Original post by hobo06)
We had a thread like this a while back, ah how I enjoyed ranting in there! Can't think of any specific ********* recently, just general people that complain about lack of staff, long queue etc. as if it's my fault, because I obviously employ the staff, do the rotas, all the management jobs whilst standing behind a till.
I work at Matalan as head cashier at weekends, dealing with refunds/exchanges, complaints and all that, so I've definitely had more than my fair share. Though also take as much overtime as I can get doing other things so it's not just at the tills I get them. I could stand tidying an area for half hour, and a customer will walk past, knock something off an arm, look at it and walk off again. Or just dump something they decide they don't want anywhere they like, I'm standing there, you could at least give it to me, or don't dump it in view.
Ah I'm going to go on and on now. Here come's a list on annoyances:

People who queue for ages, complain about the queue, but then don't help at all by having their Matalan card ready (you've just complained about how there is always a queue and not enough staff, therefore you come here regularly enough to know you are going to get asked for it!) or don't even have their payment ready, digging through their bag for their purse.
People who take the piss with exchanges (they have to queue seperately). Return one item at £2, exchange for a trolley full of stuff. Pisses other people off waiting for returns, and those queueing just to pay when they only have one or two items.
People who can't read. It says 'Please pay here' above the tills, 'Please queue here' at the end of the queue, and then a big sign behind me, and another above me saying 'Refunds and exchanges'. People then get arsey with the staff when they are sent to re-queue at the refunds desk because they queued in the wrong place, due to their own inability to read.
People who think 'Refunds and exchanges' means 'hey come to me if you can't be bothered to queue to pay'. I don't care how many items you have, you are not an exception to the rules.

OK I'll stop there for now, but no doubt I will think of much more and I'll be back!

exact same crap in the matalan where I work, we get alot of problems with stuff being on offer or not, i.e. people going far beyond what a sign say from.... £X ******* and them totally flipping.

Get alot of people storming off because they been waiting so long and then getting peed off with person on till. If you've got somewhere to be why are you shopping at matalan??

the basic problem is the number of people shopping there and the number of people on tills and doing over jobs. they dont make enough money per person coming in to pay for more people to be on tills to serve them. Thats because its cheap and people dont spend loads...

Are any other Matalan employees getting well and truly pissed off with all the add-on sales we have to do now? When I first started all I had to ask was "Do you have a Matalan card at all?" Now it's "Do you have a Matalan card at all? Would you be interested in receiving free money off vouchers via email? Would you be interested in buying insert name of this weeks add on sales item for the summer/fathers day/they're only £2"
We all each have a little book now that we have to record any add on sales in, with what it was and how much it was. It's getting ridiculous. Customers aren't stupid - if they wanted a crappy strappy t-shirt then they'd ask for one, they wouldn't wait for me to prompt them!

OOOOH and having to know stretch targets. For the last two years that I have been working at Matalan, Paul Taylor (who is apparently some kind of God in Matalan-world) will be descending on us very soon. So apparently we all have to memorise the store's daily target, the stretch target, our departments daily target and our departments hourly target just in case Oh High And Mightly Taylor shows up. It's not like this is just a part time job or anything and frankly we don't care...

I used to work in McDonalds and there were loads and loads of really irritating people! One time, it was about 8.30am and I was the only person serving on the till and looking after the drive thru window and there was a queue of about 5 people at the till. The guy at the end of the queue just randomly went berserk and started yelling about how he only wanted a coffee and he'd been waiting in this queue for 5 mins now etc etc and he was right up in my face and waving his fists about and stuff. I was about to tell him that I wasn't going to serve him now and my manager walked up and gave him a free coffee and food and a voucher for free food for the next time he came in! I was like wtf?! Grrr...
I work at the Eden Project now which is a lot better. The visitors generally aren't evil, just funny. Like I'll be stood in the rainforest biome and they'll start asking me where the rainforest biome is... (bless!)

Sucks to be you guys. I've worked at Asda for 8½ months and I've never had any real bastards of customers; they're mostly friendly and don't have a problem if I can't help them. There have been a couple of bitchy ones that turn their noses up and walk away in a huff if we don't have a product in stock, but they're rare (snobs usually go to Waitrose ).

The only one that sticks in my memory was a woman who'd bought a TV as a Christmas present for her brat; the TV didn't work, so she came in and demanded that she got a replacement immediately, but we were out of stock. She decided it would be a good idea to refuse to leave the store until she had a replacement TV (even though we didn't have one and wouldn't until the next day) and actually said to me that she didn't care if it meant that I had to build her one from scratch, but she wanted it there and then.

I used to work in an ornament shop and the only good thing was the staff there.
We used to have to go and get the corresponding box for the item from the stock room out the back and bearing it mind there are hundreds of boxes and you have to get the right one with the right number it can take a little while, so after you've scoured the stock room for this box you come out and they've gone.

The shop offers this collectors token scheme where if you collect enough you get money off the next purchase and you get 1 token for every £10 spent, this one woman paid like £60.40 for this hideous house ornament so I gave her 6 tokens and she demanded she was given another one because she was only '10p off' I felt like saying she was arrogant and crap at maths.

The "Are you busy?" question. Am I busy? No, I'm just standing up a ladder searching around on top of the cabinets because I enjoy the view.

The customers that think you should drop everything to serve them, even when you're in the middle of serving someone else.

I now work in a call centre and you get more than you're fair share there.

"Do you know how long I've been in this queue?" Yes, we have boards telling us the amount of customers and we can only answer one at a time.

One bloke rang up to complain that there was an asian person on the front of the booklet we send out, he didnt think an asian person should represent the business that we do.

One man said he was going to Parliament because I couldnt tell him the accurate calculation for something even after I explained to him that It took around 3 hours to do manually and we hadn't been trained on it.

The ones that come on and scream at you, yeah because that's going to want to make me help you.

In April there was a deadline for payment of some arrears and people would ring up and ask for a statement telling them about the payments one day before the deadline and then start shouting when told it would take up to 10 days. It's not my fault you received a letter in 2004 telling you about the deadline but you havent done anything until now.

When at the end we say 'Is there anything else I can help with?' and they say 'not unless you've got the lottery numbers' I feel like saying do you think I would be working if I had the lottery numbers and even If I did I wouldnt give them to you.

When they start arguing that you can't confirm any details to them even though you know they would be the first ones to complain if we gave out their details to someone else.

(Original post by greenjellybean)
I work in a hospital (private) with people paying loads of money to get treatment etc
The worst thing is dealing with patients who think they are above everybody because they can afford to pay thousands for treatment - they won't have anything less than a nurse do anything for them (and I'm a HCA) and demand that their consultants rearrange EVERYTHING so that they could see them

I just think - idiots!

I get annoyed when patients come from the private wing over to a specialist NHS ward, but still expect to be treated like they're in private.

And it's not just the private patients who are pushy and demanding! I get so many people asking me to fetch a nurse every five minutes because they want to sit up, while in the next bay there's some poor woman who's messed her bed. I'm sure the patients would be complaining more if they left the woman to stew in her own filth, just so they could come and help another patient to sit up.

And at Boots (my other job) we get the normal annoying customers. The REALLY annoying thing is when one person comes in with about 20 vouchers, all printed off the same website, to get £2 off a £2.25 body lotion, and we have to ring it through in 20 transactions because the till won't let you use two vouchers in one transaction. Meanwhile, a queue of impatient customers is forming behind her, who all get really stroppy with YOU i.e. the cashier, not the woman who was making your life difficult in the first place!